Handcart

ABSTRACT

A handcart includes a cart frame, a caster, and a code reader. The cart frame includes a receiving portion on which a shopping basket is placeable and a lateral portion extending in a width direction of the cart frame. The caster is disposed at a bottom region of the cart frame. The code reader is attached to the lateral portion of the cart frame so as to be rotatable around the lateral portion. The code reader may be rotated around the lateral portion of the cart frame to a first position at which a reading window of the code reader faces an inner space of the shopping basket on the receiving portion of the cart frame, and to a second position at which the reading window of the code reader faces a front of the cart frame.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/268,750, filed on Feb. 6, 2019, which is based upon and claims thebenefit of priority from Japanese Patent Application No. 2018-038012,filed on Mar. 2, 2018, the entire contents of each of which areincorporated herein by reference.

FIELD

An embodiment described herein relates generally to a handcart.

BACKGROUND

A shopping cart such as a handcart is used by a customer in a store suchas a supermarket or a shopping mall. There is a shopping cart of onetype having a code scanner for the customer to read commodity codesattached to commodities. The shopping cart may also have a displaydevice that displays commodity names, unit prices, and the like of thecommodities of which commodity codes are read by the code scanner.

A conventional code scanner is attached to a specific position of ashopping cart, e.g., a position in a level of the waist to the chest ofthe customer for such a conventional code scanner attached to a shoppingcart, the customer may need to lift a heavy commodity to near thescanner and scan a commodity code. Also, the customer may need to tilt acommodity that is undesirable to tilt, such as food products.

DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 illustrates an exterior perspective view of a shopping cartaccording to an embodiment.

FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of a scanner attached to theshopping cart.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustrating functional units of a controlsection of the shopping cart.

FIG. 4 illustrates a schematic side view of a scanner to explain a tiltoperation of the scanner.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an image captured by the scanner.

FIG. 6 is a diagram to explain image processing of the scanner.

FIG. 7 is a diagram to explain the image processing of the scanner.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

An embodiment is directed to providing a handcart in which a readingdirection of a scanner attached to the handcart can be changed to allowa customer to easily read a commodity code.

In general, according to an embodiment, a handcart includes a cartframe, a caster, and a code reader. The cart frame includes a receivingportion on which a shopping basket is placeable and a lateral portionextending in a width direction of the cart frame. The caster is disposedat a bottom region of the cart frame. The code reader is attached to thelateral portion of the cart frame so as to be rotatable around thelateral portion.

An embodiment is described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1illustrates an exterior perspective view of a shopping cart (e.g., ahandcart) 10. FIG. 2 illustrates a perspective view of a scannerattached to the shopping cart 10. FIG. 3 is a block diagram illustratinga control section 200 of the shopping cart 10. FIG. 4 illustrates aschematic side view of the scanner to explain a tilt operation of thescanner. In this embodiment, a handle frame section 40 side is referredto as the rear, and a projecting direction of a basket receiving section50 projecting from the handle frame section 40 is referred to as thefront.

Although not illustrated in FIG. 1, the shopping cart 10 functions as aregister that reads a commodity code of a commodity that a customerdesires to purchase. A list of read commodities is transferred to acheckout machine, which is a separate apparatus. The customer performspayment using the checkout machine.

As illustrated in FIG. 1, the shopping cart 10 according to thisembodiment includes a cart section 20 that carries a shopping basket Pthat stores commodities and an electrical section 100 attached to thecart section 20. The cart section 20 includes a caster section 30 forsmoothly moving the shopping cart 10 on the floor surface, a handleframe section 40 vertically provided on a rear wheel side of the castersection 30, and a basket receiving section 50 attached to anintermediate position in the height direction of the handle framesection 40 to be directed forward. The shopping basket P can be placedon the caster section 30 and the basket receiving section 50 asappropriate. The shopping basket P includes a handle Pa that swings.

The caster section 30 includes a frame 31 having a square frame shape,the rear side of which is open, and casters 32 respectively provided atfour corners of the frame 31. The casters 32 include brackets 32 a thatfreely turn around axes in the vertical direction and include, in thebrackets 32 a, wheels 32 b that are made of rubber or resin and freelyturn in the horizontal direction. A receiving section 33 is provided inthe frame 31. The receiving section 33 is formed in dimensions forallowing a lower part of the shopping basket P to fit in the receivingsection 33.

The handle frame section 40 includes vertical frames 41 respectivelyattached to left and right rear wheel sides of the caster section 30 anda handlebar (a lateral frame) 42 in the horizontal direction thatconnects the upper ends of the vertical frames 41. An extended arm 43 isattached to the vertical frame 41 on the left side. A reinforcingmaterial 44 is attached to the handle frame section 40.

The basket receiving section 50 includes a frame 51 having a squareframe shape and a receiving section 52 provided on the lower side of theframe 51. The receiving section 52 is formed in dimensions for allowingthe lower part of the shopping basket P to fit in the receiving section52.

The electrical section 100 is provided above the caster section 30. Abattery section 110 attached between the vertical frames 41 on the lowerend side of the handle frame section 40 and a scanner device 120 forreading a commodity code are provided. The electrical section 100includes a display 150 that displays various kinds of information suchas a commodity name and a unit price of a commodity read by a scanner140 explained below and a camera 160 that images the inside of theshopping basket P and the like. The battery section 110 supplieselectric power to the scanner device 120, the display 150, and thecamera 160 via a power line incorporated in the handle frame section 40.The scanner device 120, the display 150, and the camera 160 areconnected to one another by cables incorporated in the handle framesection 40 and the extended arm 43. The display 150 is attached to theupper end of the extended arm 43. The camera 160 is attached to ahalfway part of the extended arm 43. The shopping cart 10 functioning asa register that reads a commodity code of a commodity that a customerdesires to purchase is configured by these components.

As illustrated in FIG. 2, the scanner device 120 includes a scannerholder 130 attached to the handlebar 42 and a scanner (a commodity-codereading device) 140 detachably attached to the scanner holder 130 andconfigured to read a commodity code for specifying a commodity.

The scanner holder 130 includes a holder base 131 in a lower partfastened to the handlebar 42 and a holder housing 132 provided in anupper part of the holder base 131. The holder base 131 has a tiltfunction for tilting the holder housing 132 respectively in front andrear directions of the cart section 20 with respect to the verticaldirection at a maximum angle of 90° as indicated by an arrow Q in FIGS.2 and 4. The holder base 131 also has a turning function for turning theholder housing 132 around an axis in the vertical direction as indicatedby an arrow R in FIGS. 2 and 4.

The scanner 140 includes a substantially rectangular parallelepipedscanner body 141. An opening section 141 a is provided on the frontsurface of the scanner body 141. The opening section 141 a is closed bya glass plate 141 b. A reading section 141 c is provided in the openingsection 141 a.

A scanner trigger 142 for starting a scanner operation with the readingsection 141 c is provided on the upper surface of the scanner body 141.A handle 143 is provided on the rear surface of the scanner body 141.The scanner body 141 includes, on the inside, a gyro sensor 144 fordetecting the direction (orientation) of the reading section 141 c. Thegyro sensor 144 can detect a tilt and a turning direction of the gyrosensor 144.

The scanner 140 has a function of segmenting a region equivalent to abarcode out of an image photographed by the camera 160 and recognizingthe barcode through image processing. The scanner 140 reads commoditycodes attached to commodities displayed in a store. The commodity codesare associated with the commodities.

The display 150 includes a display panel 152 having a touch panelfunction. The display panel 152 is provided on the front surface of aterminal housing 151. A control section 200 that controls the batterysection 110, the scanner device 120, the display 150, and the camera 160is provided on the inside of the terminal housing 151.

As illustrated in FIG. 4, in the control section 200, a ROM (Read OnlyMemory) 202 that stores data in a non-rewritable manner, a RAM (RandomAccess Memory) 203 that stores variable data in a rewritable manner andfunctions as a work area or the like of a CPU (Central processing Unit)201, and a nonvolatile memory 204 are connected to, via a bus line 220,the CPU 201 that controls these functional units. In the RAM 203, astorage region for storing a commodity master downloaded from a hostserver and a shopping list created on the basis of a commodity code readby the customer and the commodity master is provided. Computer programsexecuted by the CPU 201 are stored in the nonvolatile memory 204.Further, the CPU 201 is connected to an interface 205 with the displaypanel 152, an interface 206 with the scanner 140, an interface 207 withthe battery section 110, an interface 208 with the camera 160, and aninterface 209 with the gyro sensor 144 via the bus line 220. The CPU 201is connected to a communication interface 210 via the bus line 220. TheCPU 201 performs communication with the checkout machine, the hostserver, and the like via the communication interface 210.

The CPU 201 has a function (a function of a discriminating section) ofextracting a barcode region from an image of a read commodity code andvalidating the read commodity code only if the barcode region is largerthan a predetermined size. Before reading a commodity code, the CPU 201may extract a barcode region from an image of the commodity code andallow reading of the commodity code only if the barcode region is largerthan the predetermined size.

The shopping cart 10 configured in this way can be used as explainedbelow. That is, in the beginning, the shopping cart 10 is placed in anentrance or the like of the store. At this time, the scanner 140 isdirected to any direction with respect to the scanner holder 130.

Subsequently, the customer pulls out the shopping cart 10 that thecustomer uses. The customer holds the scanner 140 and performs a tiltoperation or a turning operation to direct the scanner 140 in a desireddirection of the customer. The customer takes the shopping basket P andplaces the shopping basket P on the caster section 30 or the basketreceiving section 50. The customer moves the shopping cart 10 toward acommodity shelf on which commodities are displayed while pushing thehandlebar 42.

As a method of reading a commodity code, there is a manual recognitionmethod for pressing the scanner trigger 142 to read the commodity codeand an automatic recognition method for reading the commodity codewithout pressing the scanner trigger 142. First, the manual recognitionmethod is explained. The store may set the manual recognition method andthe automatic recognition method, or the customer may set the manualrecognition method and the automatic recognition method according topreference of the customer.

The customer takes out a target commodity from the commodity shelf,brings a commodity code of the commodity close to the opening section141 a of the scanner 140 while keeping the scanner 140 inserted into thescanner holder 130, and presses the scanner trigger 142. Consequently,the commodity code is read by the scanner 140. Read information is sentto the control section 200, saved in the RAM 203, and displayed on thedisplay panel 152 as a commodity name and an amount. The customer putsthe commodity in the shopping basket P placed on the caster section 30or the basket receiving section 50.

On the other hand, concerning a heavy commodity (e.g., a beverage orrice), the customer tilts the scanner 140 to the downward direction asindicated by a solid line in FIG. 4, takes out the commodity from thecommodity shelf, and brings the commodity close to the reading section141 c. The customer presses the scanner trigger 142 to read a commoditycode of the commodity. In this case, it is unnecessary to lift thecommodity to the height of the handlebar 42. The customer puts thecommodity in the shopping basket P on the basket receiving section 50.

For a commodity (e.g., a daily dish or sashimi) undesirable to be tiltedat a certain angle or more, similarly, as illustrated in FIG. 4, thecustomer tilts the scanner 140 to the downward direction, takes out thecommodity from the commodity shelf, and presses the scanner trigger 142without tilting the commodity. Consequently, a commodity code readingoperation is performed. A read commodity code is processed by thecontrol section 200 as explained above.

On the other hand, in the case of the automatic recognition method, thecustomer brings a commodity close to the front of the reading section141 c of the scanner 140 without tilting the scanner 140 downward.Consequently, the scanner 140 automatically performs a commodity codereading operation regardless of the operation of the scanner trigger142.

In the case of the heavy commodity and the commodity undesirable to betilted, the customer tilts the scanner 140. At this time, the customermay direct the reading section 141 c to the basket receiving section 50side. Since the tilt operation and the turning operation of the readingsection 141 c are already detected by the gyro sensor 144, the controlsection 200 recognizes that an imaging direction of the reading section141 c is directed to the basket receiving section 50 side. In anembodiment, the operation of the scanner 140 and/or the operation of theCPU 201 may be activated upon the gyro sensor 144 detecting that thereading section 141 c is directed to the basket receiving section 50side.

FIG. 5 illustrates an example of an image obtained by the readingsection 141 c. FIGS. 6 and 7 illustrate an example of image processing.In FIG. 5, K represents the left hand of the customer, T represents acommodity held by the left hand K of the customer, Ta represents abarcode representing a commodity code of the commodity T, B representscommodities in the shopping basket P, and Ba represents a barcoderepresenting a commodity code attached to the commodity B.

As illustrated in FIG. 5, two commodity codes Ta and Ba are imaged bythe reading section 141 c. A barcode region in which a commodity code isphotographed is segmented from an image captured when a readingoperation is performed in the control section 200.

Subsequently, as illustrated in FIGS. 6 and 7, the CPU 201 determineslongitudinal and lateral dimensions of the barcode region. That is, inthe case of the commodity code Ta, the CPU 201 determines dimensions t1and t2. In the case of the commodity code Ba, the CPU 201 determinesdimensions b1 and b2. Thresholds are set in advance for the dimensions.The CPU 201 determines that a read commodity code is valid only if thedimensions are larger than predetermined dimensions. In FIGS. 6 and 7,the commodity code Ta is determined as valid because the commodity codeTa is larger than the predetermined dimensions. In this case, thecommodity code Ta is displayed on the display 150. The commodity code Bais determined as invalid because the commodity code Ba is smaller thanthe predetermined dimensions. In this case, the commodity code Ba is notdisplayed on the display 150.

In the above explanation, the control section 200 determines validityand invalidity after reading the commodity code. However, before readingof the commodity code, according to the size of the barcode region, thecontrol section 200 may convert (decode) an image of a barcode into acommodity code only if the barcode region is larger than a predeterminedsize.

In this way, the customer can determine a tilt and a direction of thescanner 140 according to preference of the customer. Therefore,usability of the scanner 140 is improved. In particular, for the heavycommodity and the commodity undesirable to be tilted, the customer cancause the scanner 140 to appropriately read the commodity code by, forexample, tilting the scanner 140 itself. In this case, if the scanner140 is tilted to the shopping basket P side, a reading operation isperformed on the basis of the size of the commodity code in order todistinguish the commodity B already stored in the shopping basket P andthe commodity T, the commodity code of which is to be read. Therefore,misrecognition can be prevented.

If the customer finishes purchasing all commodities that the customerdesires to purchase, the customer moves to the checkout machine. Forexample, the customer operates the touch panel of the display 150 totransmit the shopping list stored in the RAM 203 to the checkoutmachine. The customer performs payment using the checkout machine. Afterfinishing the payment, the customer returns the shopping cart 10 to apredetermined position of the store.

In the above explanation of the embodiment, the scanner 140 is capableof tilting and turning in a state in which the scanner 140 is set on thehandlebar 42. However, the turning mechanism may be omitted. Besides,the customer may detach the scanner 140 from the scanner holder 130 andbring the scanner 140 close to a commodity to perform reading of thecommodity. In this case as well, a sensor may determine whether or notthe customer directs the reading section 141 c of the scanner 140 to theshopping basket P side and distinguish a commodity that is read by thecustomer from a commodity put in the shopping basket P.

In the embodiment, the size of the barcode region is determined only ifthe reading section 141 c is directed to the shopping basket P in aplacing section. However, for example, in the case of an automaticrecognition type for always recognizing an image, it is likely that acommodity bar code of a commodity on a commodity shelf is recognizedeven in a state in which the customer is walking while pushing theshopping cart 10. Therefore, the size of the barcode region may bedetermined irrespective of the angle and the direction of the readingsection 141 c.

Further, in the embodiment, the gyro sensor is used as means fordetecting a tilt and a turning position of the scanner 140. However, asensor that mechanically or electrically detects a tilt and a directionwith a microswitch or the like provided in the scanner 140 or the holderbase 131 may be used.

While a certain embodiment has been explained above the embodiment ispresented as an example and is not intended to limit the scope of theinvention. The new embodiment can be implemented in other various forms.Various omissions, substitutions, and changes can be performed withoutdeparting from the spirit of the invention. The embodiment andmodifications of the embodiment are included in the scope and the gistof the invention and included in the inventions described in claims andthe scope of equivalents of the inventions.

What is claimed is:
 1. A handcart comprising: a cart frame including areceiving portion on which a shopping basket is placeable and a lateralportion extending in a width direction of the cart frame; a casterdisposed at a bottom region of the cart frame; a code reader configuredto perform code reading to obtain a scanned image including a codesymbol on a product and attached to the lateral portion of the cartframe so as to be rotatable around the lateral portion of the cart frameto a first position at which an image capturing window of the codereader faces an inner space of the shopping basket on the receivingportion of the cart frame, and to a second position at which the imagecapturing window of the code reader faces a front of the cart frame; anda processing device configured to: perform image processing on thescanned image to determine an image region of the code symbol in thescanned image; and convert the code symbol to a product code representedthereby, upon determining that the image region of the code symbol inthe scanned image is greater than a predetermined size.
 2. The handcartaccording to claim 1, wherein the processing device is furtherconfigured to determine a first length of the image region in a firstdirection and a second length of the image region in a second directiondifferent from the first direction, and determine that the image regionis greater than the predetermined size based on the first and secondlengths.
 3. The handcart according to claim 2, wherein the firstdirection is along a first edge of the image region and the seconddirection is along a second edge of the image region crossing the firstedge.
 4. The handcart according to claim 1, wherein the lateral portionof the cart frame is a handle portion disposed at a rear region of thecart frame.
 5. The handcart according to claim 1, wherein the codereader is configured to operate in a first mode during which the codereader carries out code reading in response to an operation of a scannertrigger, and in a second mode during which the code reader carries outcode reading without the operation of the scanner trigger.
 6. Thehandcart according to claim 1, wherein the processing device does notperform conversion of the code symbol to the product code representedthereby when determining that the image region of the code symbol in thescanned image is less than the predetermined size.
 7. The handcartaccording to claim 1, further comprising: a gyro sensor configured todetect an orientation of the code scanner, wherein the processing deviceis enabled to perform the image processing when the code reader isdetected by the gyro sensor to be oriented so that a reading widow ofthe code reader faces an inner space of the shopping basket on thereceiving portion of the cart frame.
 8. The handcart according to claim1, wherein the handcart further comprises a display device configured todisplay information corresponding to the obtained scanned image.
 9. Thehandcart according to claim 1, further comprising: a camera positionedto capture an image of a region including an inner space of the shoppingbasket.
 10. The handcart according to claim 1, further comprising: abattery coupled to a portion of the cart frame below the lateralportion, the battery being electrically connected to the code scanner tosupply power thereto.
 11. The handcart according to claim 1, wherein thecode reader is attached to a center of the lateral portion in a widthdirection of the cart frame.
 12. A method for registering a product codeduring shopping: placing a shopping basket on a receiving portion of acart frame of a handcart; and placing a product in the shopping basket;and rotating a code reader attached to a lateral portion of the cartframe of the handcart around the lateral portion so that an imagecapturing window of the code reader faces an inner space of the shoppingbasket on the receiving portion; performing a code reading operationwith the code reader to obtain a scanned image including a code symbolon the product, after the code reader has been rotated to position theimage capturing window of the code reader to face the inner space of theshopping basket; perform image processing on the scanned image todetermine an image region of the code symbol in the scanned image; andconverting the code symbol to a product code represented thereby, upondetermining that the image region of the code symbol in the scannedimage is greater than a predetermined size.
 13. The method according toclaim 12, further comprising: determining a first length of the imageregion in a first direction and a second length of the image region in asecond direction different from the first direction, whereindetermination that the image region is greater than the predeterminedsize is made based on the first and second lengths.
 14. The methodaccording to claim 13, wherein the first direction is along a first edgeof the image region and the second direction is along a second edge ofthe image region crossing the first edge.
 15. The method according toclaim 12, wherein said performing the code reading operation comprises:operating, by a user, a scanner trigger of the code reader; and inresponse to operation of the scanner trigger, starting the code readingoperation.
 16. The method according to claim 12, further comprising:detecting an orientation of the code reader with a gyro sensor; andenabling the image processing when the code reader is detected by thegyro sensor to be oriented so that the image capturing window of thecode reader faces the inner space of the shopping basket on thereceiving portion of the cart frame.